Not My Mum – Hands off my ‘Tartine’

Remember when I wrote that Europe was not our Mom and therefore is not supposed to tell us what to eat or not ; it just has to make sure we are properly informed…

A plan to improve this information was put before the MEPs this week – and was rejected. The proposed plan would have introduced color coded pies indicating the level of fat, salt, sugar, … and the healthiness of those. Aliments with too much fat or salt would also faced restrictions on advertising.

The problem with that scheme : It’s killing Nutella (among others) ! Nutella, by essence, got more than ten percent of fat – a level high above the healthy limit – and would face restriction and an red filled colored information pie that would stamp it as unhealthy . Of course, eating Nutella by the spoons would not be the healthiest thing (but it is so good), but people don’t always eat bare Nutella, bread or waffles level down the unhealthiness of the chocolate delicacy.

This is a tricky issue ; one would argue that labeling products as healthy or not is a form of telling us what to eat – Although, just giving the amount of fat or sugar is not necessary a clear indication for citizens… The debate will go on.

[…] The European Parliament was seating in plenary session at the beginning of the week [*] ; MEPs did express their will to take part actively in the economic politics of the Union [*,*]. The important point of the session regarded food labeling [*]: the geographic origin of a product will have to be indicated, and also the percentage of fat, salt, sugars, … [*,*]; a color code has been rejected as it would have stigmatize some products [*]. […]